Creative Director
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Well then that is another can of worms entirely. Since there were prophecies concerning him and the coming days that are no more. "If" they were valid it means either he was "taken" before his "time." Or, they will be fulfilled in other ways.
And that's why so many of Pharasma's worshipers and clerics went mad when that prophecy broke. It was a pretty big deal.
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Creative Director
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What are some of your favorite pieces of art that have appeared in your products? Specifically, what are some of your favorites from RotRL?
The goblins from the cover of Burnt Offerings and Merisiel from the cover of Hook Mountain are so much of favorites of mine that I spent a LOT of money on them to buy both originals from Wayne.
All of the covers are great, in fact. I particularly like what Wayne did with Karzoug.
Apart from that, I quite like the picture of Lamashtu that Eva Widermann did in #5—that's probably my favorite picture from the insides of the books.
what is valeros fighting on the cover of ultimate combat? and is the nodachi really supposed to be a martial weapon? It makes us falchion users cry.
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Creative Director
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James, you have mentioned a number of times your dislike for musicals. Does this extend to rock operas? I generally hate musicals myself, though there are a handful that I enjoy. You also said way back in the thread that you're a fan of Liszt; there's a very entertaining, very strange rock-opera film called Lisztomania, a heavily fictionalized and wildly anachronistic biopic of the composer, portraying him as a Romantic-era rock star. The music in it is all arrangements of Liszt's compositions. This may still fall under the category of musical, but if not, I thought it may interest you.
Do you read biographies? If so, do you find that it helps in writing good characters?
It does indeed extend to rock operas. It does NOT extend to movies ABOUT musical characters. "Spinal Tap," "Amadeus," and the like are quite great. I'm not sure I'd be a big fan of a rock version of Liszt. That said, I AM a big fan of rock music done as classical music.
I do read biographies, but not often, and usually only about artists I really admire. Biographies I distinctly remember reading include ones on John Carpenter, Werner Herzog, Robert Bloch, and H. P. Lovecraft.
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Creative Director
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what is valeros fighting on the cover of ultimate combat? and is the nodachi really supposed to be a martial weapon? It makes us falchion users cry.
You should know what he's fighting. He's fighting yetis.
And yes, the nodachi is a martial weapon. The big advantage a falchion has over the nodachi is that it's a lot more reliable on doing consistent damage—it's harder to roll low damage with a falchion than it is with a nodachi. That said, I think that comparing the nodachi stats to the falchion and maybe adjusting them would have been good advice for the designer of the nodachi several months ago... but that time is passed.
what is valeros fighting on the cover of ultimate combat? and is the nodachi really supposed to be a martial weapon? It makes us falchion users cry.You should know what he's fighting. He's fighting yetis.
And yes, the nodachi is a martial weapon. The big advantage a falchion has over the nodachi is that it's a lot more reliable on doing consistent damage—it's harder to roll low damage with a falchion than it is with a nodachi. That said, I think that comparing the nodachi stats to the falchion and maybe adjusting them would have been good advice for the designer of the nodachi several months ago... but that time is passed.
I thought they were Yetis, very nice depictions as well! Possibly my favorite piece of PF art so far, but i like the yetis.
re: nodachi...candidate for errata? or maybe a errata bump for falchion?
Back to Yetis, funny story...I was in the store where they sell the "Bigfoot" beef jerky with the scary sasquatch on it; this little Girl (3 years old maybe?) asked her mom if she ate one would she turn into THAT!
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3) Our art directors decide that. The vast majority of the artists we use are not gamers at all, and we have not yet found an artist who's good enough to be published by us with art AND game stats, as far as I know. A person who's equally gifted in writing, game design, AND painting is the holy grail of RPG employees. They're like bigfoot. I certainly WANT them to exist, but I'm not sure they do.
Phil Foglio.
But probably his style isn't what you want for your covers.
BTW, if you have the time, read Gir Genius
James,
Do you see more Oracle curses and/or mysteries coming out at any time in future books? I personally think there are quite a good number of mysteries, but wouldn't mind a few new curse options.
--Pal
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re: nodachi...candidate for errata? or maybe a errata bump for falchion?
Errata bump for falchion, which has had its stats pretty much as they stand for over a decade, isn't really an option. Whether or not the nodachi is something that should be errataed is up to the design team. But some things are just better than others.
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Creative Director
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It does indeed extend to rock operas. It does NOT extend to movies ABOUT musical characters. "Spinal Tap," "Amadeus," and the like are quite great. I'm not sure I'd be a big fan of a rock version of Liszt. That said, I AM a big fan of rock music done as classical music.
I do read biographies, but not often, and usually only about artists I really admire. Biographies I distinctly remember reading include ones on John Carpenter, Werner Herzog, Robert Bloch, and H. P. Lovecraft.
So is the issue with musicals the suspension of disbelief regarding characters suddenly bursting into song? This is also the issue I tend to have.
What do you mean by rock music done as classical music - like orchestral arrangements of rock songs? Things like Metallica's S&M? I love that when it's done well, but all too often I find that the orchestral arrangements are just very poor - what I heard of Sting's recent orchestral album was terrible, I thought. What would you recommend in this genre?Do you play music yourself?
It's been said before, but many thanks for answering all our questions in this thread. It always makes for a good read.
A big part of my issue with musicals is that I don't like having my movie interrupted with song and dance numbers, yeah. But another big part is that I find a large number of big musical numbers in musicals to just be bad or unenjoyable music to me. There are exceptions, of course, but mostly, big song and dane numbers used to propel plots forward in movies are lame.
What I mean with rock music done as classical is exactly that—orchestral arrangements of rock songs. My favorite example is this the London Philharmonic Pink Floyd album.
I used to play music, and I still tinker now and then, but not as much as I'd like. I own a trombone and a keyboard—I used to play trombone, saxaphone, and french horn (but usually trombone) in the school band until 7th grade or so, when the music teacher moved away and the band program just stopped for several years. I also played piano for many years as well... but once I started high school I stopped the lessons. Today I wish I had not done that. And I was in an opera/musical stage production in high school at one point at well, so I even had a few nights of singing in public.
And thanks for asking the questions in the first place! :-)
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Creative Director
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3) Our art directors decide that. The vast majority of the artists we use are not gamers at all, and we have not yet found an artist who's good enough to be published by us with art AND game stats, as far as I know. A person who's equally gifted in writing, game design, AND painting is the holy grail of RPG employees. They're like bigfoot. I certainly WANT them to exist, but I'm not sure they do.
Phil Foglio.
But probably his style isn't what you want for your covers.
BTW, if you have the time, read Gir Genius
I've actually never seen Phil's raw text turnovers, so I'd be wary of saying he can design monster stat blocks. After having seen raw turnovers of some game designers who are lauded and award winning designers and realizing that the actual talent probably lay in the hands of those designer's developers and editors... let's just say, fool me once, shame on me, and all that.
His art style happens to be one I quite like (I actually like Kaja's art style a lot more though), but it's not really a style we would be able to use in Pathfinder anyway.
And I would probably say that Phil Foglio IS kind of like bigfoot. He's mysterious, kinda scary, and I'd like to meet him some day.
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James,Do you see more Oracle curses and/or mysteries coming out at any time in future books? I personally think there are quite a good number of mysteries, but wouldn't mind a few new curse options.
--Pal
We put 2 new oracle mysteries in "Inner Sea Magic" which just came out this month. And also out this month was a new oracle curse (sort of) in "The Brinewall Legacy."
So, yeah... we'll do new things for oracles here and there in the future. I'd say that the most likely places you might see them show up would be in Player Companions and in the support articles for Adventure Path.
1)What kind of cat(s) are catfolk based on, housecats or big cats like lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc.? How catlike are they? like weretigers, tabaxi or more human-like?
2)Will there be any CR12+ Fey in the beastairy III? CR15+ monstrous humaniod? CR15+ elemntal CR17+ giant?
3)Have you seen the True blood series on HBO?
4)Do you have any favorite magic items? to own as a character? to give out as a DM?
5)Is there any chance of a "Ultimate skills" book?
6)If you guys did do an "envirenment"(like frostburn) based books, would they be big hardcovers or smaller soft covers? What is smallest page count you would make a hardcover book?
7)Did you watch Buffy the vampire slayer series?
I need a advice , a couple of months ago i finished running the age of worms and my players failed in the dawn of a new age ( it was hard because dragotha and the other dragons survived and killed lashona, so you can image how hard the segment was) . Now I am starting to run the kingmaker (in golárion) and one of my player created a half-dragon that was the son of a high priests of kyuss with Zyxanth (the fang dragon). For some reason ( you can help me here) during the final battle, he was teleported between worlds to golarion as a baby. What ideas you see to make the conection between this player and the Worm that walks( The Wriggling Man) that works for Nyrissa.
OBS: IT IS SAD TO SAY, BUT IN MY GAME GREYHAWK IS NOW IS IN THE AGE OF WORMS.....
Thanks from brasil and sorry for my poor english.
Hey James, I have a request for a Golarion book.
With the coming of Ultimate Equipment I was wondering if it is possible for you guys to do a Golarion Eqipment book sorta like the FR Aurora's Whole Realm Catalogue (probably easily in my top 10 list of all time favorite RPG supplements)...more about RPing stuff instead of mechanics.
Is it possible that we will ever see a book like this for Golarion?
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Creative Director
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1)What kind of cat(s) are catfolk based on, housecats or big cats like lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc.? How catlike are they? like weretigers, tabaxi or more human-like?
2)Will there be any CR12+ Fey in the beastairy III? CR15+ monstrous humaniod? CR15+ elemntal CR17+ giant?
3)Have you seen the True blood series on HBO?
4)Do you have any favorite magic items? to own as a character? to give out as a DM?
5)Is there any chance of a "Ultimate skills" book?
6)If you guys did do an "envirenment"(like frostburn) based books, would they be big hardcovers or smaller soft covers? What is smallest page count you would make a hardcover book?
7)Did you watch Buffy the vampire slayer series?
1) We're not ready to reveal more about the catfolk in Bestiary 3 yet.
2) Yes to all, I believe, with the possible exception to a CR 15+ elemental.
3) Yes. I'm a bit behind though—I'm about 1/3 the way through season 3, with season 4 building up slowly but surely on my Tivo, so no spoilers!
4) I do like rods of wonder quite a lot. Favorite items to own as a character vary widely depending on the character, while favorite items to give out as a GM would be "powerful but unusual" ones.
5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
6) An environment book would likely be a softcover book. And would look similar to "Heart of the Jungle" or "Into the Darklands." More likely, this type of treatment would appear as a supplementary article to an Adventure Path installment though.
7) No.
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Creative Director
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I need a advice , a couple of months ago i finished running the age of worms and my players failed in the dawn of a new age ( it was hard because dragotha and the other dragons survived and killed lashona, so you can image how hard the segment was) . Now I am starting to run the kingmaker (in golárion) and one of my player created a half-dragon that was the son of a high priests of kyuss with Zyxanth (the fang dragon). For some reason ( you can help me here) during the final battle, he was teleported between worlds to golarion as a baby. What ideas you see to make the conection between this player and the Worm that walks( The Wriggling Man) that works for Nyrissa.
I'd be wary about allowing a PC half-dragon to begin with, since they're pretty powerful... but it sounds like you're comfortable with that, so that's probably not an issue.
As for a connection between that player and the Wriggling Man... maybe you could say that the Wriggling Man also came from Greyhawk in that portal transportation thingy, and that in life he was a person tied somehow to the player character? Like maybe a parent or a mentor? And when the Age of Worms actually happened, that mentor was one of the casualties who died and came back as a worm that walks, but initially he retained a shred of decency and fled Greyhawk out of shame to seek out a cure for his condition in the First World, hoping that that realm's abundance of life would help restore HIS life... but when he got there, it did the opposite and bolstered the worms and made him more evil, and eventually he hooked up with Nyraissa.
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Hey James, I have a request for a Golarion book.
With the coming of Ultimate Equipment I was wondering if it is possible for you guys to do a Golarion Eqipment book sorta like the FR Aurora's Whole Realm Catalogue (probably easily in my top 10 list of all time favorite RPG supplements)...more about RPing stuff instead of mechanics.
Is it possible that we will ever see a book like this for Golarion?
Adventurer's Armory WAS our attempt to do a book inspired by Aurora's Whole Realm Catalogue, but it went a bit astray in the process.
It's possible that we might some day do a similar book... but we generally try to skew away from simply doing repeats of books that D&D did when we can.
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5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
Some skill mechanic reorganization would be nice.
From the problem about Stealth vs. Perception to the crafting rules.About Stealth vs. Perception. A lot of people treat the Scent ability as "autodetect anything within the 30' range".
To me it seem to be "get a bonus to the perception skill and don't be limited by some specific factor".
If it was at the autodetect level it would be Blindsight, not Scent.
What is your position?
PS.: please, find a good artist for the catfolk.
5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
This saddens me. I think there is more support for such a book than you believe.
"...he was a powerfull wizard who had Come to the first world for a now-forgotten mission" (page 43)Blood for Blood.
What do you think of the Wriggling man as Alustan? Maybe he has been contaminated, and then somehow was able to flee from greyhawk to seek a cure as you mentioned.
I need a advice , a couple of months ago i finished running the age of worms and my players failed in the dawn of a new age ( it was hard because dragotha and the other dragons survived and killed lashona, so you can image how hard the segment was) . Now I am starting to run the kingmaker (in golárion) and one of my player created a half-dragon that was the son of a high priests of kyuss with Zyxanth (the fang dragon). For some reason ( you can help me here) during the final battle, he was teleported between worlds to golarion as a baby. What ideas you see to make the conection between this player and the Worm that walks( The Wriggling Man) that works for Nyrissa.I'd be wary about allowing a PC half-dragon to begin with, since they're pretty powerful... but it sounds like you're comfortable with that, so that's probably not an issue.
As for a connection between that player and the Wriggling Man... maybe you could say that the Wriggling Man also came from Greyhawk in that portal transportation thingy, and that in life he was a person tied somehow to the player character? Like maybe a parent or a mentor? And when the Age of Worms actually happened, that mentor was one of the casualties who died and came back as a worm that walks, but initially he retained a shred of decency and fled Greyhawk out of shame to seek out a cure for his condition in the First World, hoping that that realm's abundance of life would help restore HIS life... but when he got there, it did the opposite and bolstered the worms and made him more evil, and eventually he hooked up with Nyraissa.
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This saddens me. I think there is more support for such a book than you believe.5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
support for, but could you honestly fill the book with enough stuff to matter?
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Creative Director
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This saddens me. I think there is more support for such a book than you believe.5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
If you're talking about a book that supports characters who use skills (like bards and rogues), then I agree that such a book could be VERY cool. And we WILL be covering that in a certain way at one point, although not in the context of a book called "Ultimate Skills."
If you're talking about a book that introduces new skills and new ways to use current skills... that's not something we're interested in doing at all.
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Creative Director
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5) Not really. There's not enough to talk about in an Ultimate Skills book, since skills are fundamentally NOT something that we can expand upon like spells, feats, archetypes, and the like.
Some skill mechanic reorganization would be nice.
From the problem about Stealth vs. Perception to the crafting rules.About Stealth vs. Perception. A lot of people treat the Scent ability as "autodetect anything within the 30' range".
To me it seem to be "get a bonus to the perception skill and don't be limited by some specific factor".If it was at the autodetect level it would be Blindsight, not Scent.
What is your position?
PS.: please, find a good artist for the catfolk.
Skill mechanic reorganization would fundamentally alter and change every single stat block we've done in the past several years, and would force every single character to be rebuilt. Now is not the time to reorganize how skills work. That's something that has to wait for something significant, like an edition change. It's worth noting that we DID attempt a significant skills system reorganization in the alpha of the game, and that was the single most HATED change we made to the game from the playtesters, so we didn't do as huge a change to the skills system as a result.
People who treat Scent as "autodetect anything within 30 feet" aren't reading the rules for scent properly; nowhere in the rules for scent does it say something like "...most kinds of concealment are irrelevaqnt..." like it does for blindsight. It only says "you can detect opponents by sense of smell, generally within 30 feet." The word "automatic" does not appear in there at all. This is not a rules problem as much as people not paying attention to the words or making assumptions about things that aren't really there, I guess. It doesn't even grant any intrinsic bonus to Perception either. It basically just ALLOWS you to roll a Perception check to notice a non-unusually scented creature by smell. None of that would be fixed by a reorganization of the skills system.
And the catfolk illustration is very very cool.
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Skill mechanic reorganization would fundamentally alter and change every single stat block we've done in the past several years, and would force every single character to be rebuilt. Now is not the time to reorganize how skills work. That's something that has to wait for something significant, like an edition change. It's worth noting that we DID attempt a significant skills system reorganization in the alpha of the game, and that was the single most HATED change we made to the game from the playtesters, so we didn't do as huge a change to the skills system as a result.
What about an expansion of the existing skill system instead of a reorganization? A book covering more detailed description of expanded or alternate uses for any given skill, etc?
A resource that could cover ways to handled scaled successes and a failures a little better (and less binary), expanded rules for research, skill and player/npc interaction (co-op use). Equipment and tool interaction with skills, intense training, rules for quick & dirty research or task resolution or long and intense/risky study for more difficult tasks (decipher spells out of Necronomicon). Maybe throw in a few skill related feats or some skill focused Archetypes for a few of the classes (would be great for NPC options).
Would be a good place to pitch brand new variant skills systems that go just beyond "Bonus - target DC" system. Maybe a more complex variant for people who want skills to play as critical role as BAB or spell use in their game.
All I'm saying is I think there is plenty of room for more detail in the skill dept, even if it is handled the same way variant rules were presented in UM and UC.
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Creative Director
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What about an expansion of the existing skill system instead of a reorganization? A book covering more detailed description of expanded or alternate uses for any given skill, etc?
A resource that could cover ways to handled scaled successes and a failures a little better (and less binary), expanded rules for research, skill and player/npc interaction (co-op use). Equipment and tool interaction with skills, intense training, rules for quick & dirty research or task resolution or long and intense/risky study for more difficult tasks (decipher spells out of Necronomicon). Maybe throw in a few skill related feats or some skill focused Archetypes for a few of the classes (would be great for NPC options).
Would be a good place to pitch brand new variant skills systems that go just beyond "Bonus - target DC" system. Maybe a more complex variant for people who want skills to play as critical role as BAB or spell use in their game.
All I'm saying is I think there is plenty of room for more detail in the skill dept, even if it is handled the same way variant rules were presented in UM and UC.
An expansion to the skill system would be nearly as bad. While an expansion wouldn't obsolete all previous stat blocks, it would certainly outdate them. I'm not a fan of publishing material that makes our previous stuff obsolete OR outdated, and thus, expanding something that was never designed to be expanded upon would be bad.
Feats, spells, monsters, classes, archetypes, races, prestige classes, magic items, weapons, gear, armor... pretty much EVERYTHING else in the game can take expansions in this manner without causing problems, but skills? Not so much. Certainly not to the extent that we'd be able to fill a 256 page hardcover with the topic.
Rebuilding/expanding skills is getting too close to "rebuilding the way spell preparation works" or "rebuilding how base attack progression and save progression" works. It's too fundamentally part of the game's backbone to be something that can be changed without changing editions.
THAT SAID: It's certainly an interesting topic, and could be quite fun in a house rule format. I could even see a 3rd party publisher take a shot at this. But it's not something I'd like to see Paizo do, since it would create a schism in the fundamental rules assumptions of how the game works.
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JJ,
There have been many posts saying that a cleric shouldn't be healing in combat beyond the odd channel now and again. What is your opinion on this? How was the clerics role envisioned during deveopment?
Those people are playing a VERY different game than the one I play.
A cleric, or ANY healer, swooping in to revive a fallen ally or provide some much-needed healing to keep someone alive is a KEY part of every single fantasy RPG game I've played.
A cleric's expected role in a party is support; either supporting in combat, supporting with spells, or supporting with healing and the like.
EXAMPLE: I play a cleric in Jason's "Weekly Grind" game, and pretty much in EVERY SINGLE SESSION, my actions in combat are some form of healing or support. And in pretty much EVERY SINGLE SESSION, my character being able to heal one or a lot of allies has more or less prevented a TPK. Had I instead been attacking and saving my healing for a post-battle recovery period, we would have all died and there would have BEEN no post-battle recovery period.
James, I believe most of the people talking about this are not saying that clerics should not support, but that cure spells heal damage more slowly than monsters inflict it. The idea is that as much as possible, the cleric should be buffing/supporting instead of running around curing d8+x at a time.
Yes, channeling does help make primary healIng more efficient, but it still seems slower than incoming damage.
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We have no plans at this point to expand and flesh out the map of southern Garund, but I do have a pretty good idea of what's down there. The short version can be found in the Inner Sea World Guide, but it includes the lizardfolk empire of Droon, the "amazonian" nation of Holomog, a nation of bug people, a nation of Azata worshipers, LOTS more Mwangi Expanse and jungle, and more.
*swoon*
That's hot.
Since neither the Thri-Kreen, Aspis or Xixchil (or Phraint) are open content, I imagine those bug-people will have to be new critters.
Awesome that there's gonna be a lot more Mwangi Expanse!
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Creative Director
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James, I believe most of the people talking about this are not saying that clerics should not support, but that cure spells heal damage more slowly than monsters inflict it. The idea is that as much as possible, the cleric should be buffing/supporting instead of running around curing d8+x at a time.
Yes, channeling does help make primary healIng more efficient, but it still seems slower than incoming damage.
If that's the case, those people are forgetting the fact that when you attack or do things, there are VERY few situations where having 1 hp and having full hp matters. In other words, healing during combat isn't supposed to keep you at maximum hit points—it's supposed to keep you from dropping below 1 hit point. You don't have to outpace damage, and in fact, if healing did, then there'd be very little sense of urgency and danger in a battle. Healing in the middle of a combat is meant to extend the amount of time folks stay alive so they can get more damage in, not to negate the entire threat of combat entirely.
I suspect that a big part of the issue is that the concept of healing someone else so THEY can get the glory of the final attack that wins the combat is why a lot of people have various problems with clerics (or bards for that matter), but that's a different rant.
I was amused to see that the Brinewall Legacy had Dire Corbies as the main mooks in the castle. Who dared you to put them in? Or were you trying to stretch yourself by using a monster in a creative way you are on record as not liking all that much.
Well for me an Ultimate skill book would focus on:
1)Skill based classes
2)options to give characters more skill points/class skills
3)archtypes that are more skill focus
4)alternate uses for skills
5)adding a knowledge(science/technology) skill would be nice
6)more feats, traits, magic items that are skill based
7)maybe some skill based prestige classes
8)options for better crafting/creating items, weapons, tools, etc.
9)spells that are for skills, versitility, tricks, etc.
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Hi James,
Seeker of Secrets is a very nice book. For PFS gaming do I REALLY have to get the Field Guide to participate in PFS game play. I have read on several posts that it is not up to par. No disrespect intended...
Dinkster
As someone who plays quite a bit of PFS and GMs it even more, I think the Field Guide is excellent. Seriously excellent. It's much more OP-focused that Seeker, and in that regard is a great success. I love vanities, and faction-specific prestige awards.
Seeker is still great, and ioun stone resonance is amazing, but for PFS I'd definitely recommend the Field Guide.
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Creative Director
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I was amused to see that the Brinewall Legacy had Dire Corbies as the main mooks in the castle. Who dared you to put them in? Or were you trying to stretch yourself by using a monster in a creative way you are on record as not liking all that much.
Up until Rob McCreary wrote about dire corbies in "Misfit Monsters Redeemed," I hated them and made fun of them all the time.
Turns out, Rob's a REALLY good writer, and he completely redeemed them in my eyes. I needed a birdlike critter for the oni in the adventure to latch onto anyway—originally, they were tengus, but dire corbies and their connection with Pazuzu fit Varisia so much better.
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Creative Director
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Hi James,
Seeker of Secrets is a very nice book. For PFS gaming do I REALLY have to get the Field Guide to participate in PFS game play. I have read on several posts that it is not up to par. No disrespect intended...
Dinkster
The only books you need to play in PFS are whatever books you need to run an adventure (if you're the GM), or whatever books you need to play your character. If you don't want to use any of the options in the Field Guide, then you don't need it. If you do, you do.
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Creative Director
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Well for me an Ultimate skill book would focus on:
1)Skill based classes
2)options to give characters more skill points/class skills
3)archtypes that are more skill focus
4)alternate uses for skills
5)adding a knowledge(science/technology) skill would be nice
6)more feats, traits, magic items that are skill based
7)maybe some skill based prestige classes
8)options for better crafting/creating items, weapons, tools, etc.
9)spells that are for skills, versitility, tricks, etc.
All of these things can be covered in other books that aren't called "Ultimate Skills."
Many of these are ALREADY covered in the three character option books we've done already, even though "Advanced Player's Guide", "Ultimate Magic," and "Ultimate Combat" don't use the word "skill" in their titles.
I'm eager to move on to something other than pure player option books in our hardcover line, in other words.
Dinosaur goodness here.
Enjoy
James, I believe most of the people talking about this are not saying that clerics should not support, but that cure spells heal damage more slowly than monsters inflict it. The idea is that as much as possible, the cleric should be buffing/supporting instead of running around curing d8+x at a time.
Yes, channeling does help make primary healIng more efficient, but it still seems slower than incoming damage.
If that's the case, those people are forgetting the fact that when you attack or do things, there are VERY few situations where having 1 hp and having full hp matters. In other words, healing during combat isn't supposed to keep you at maximum hit points—it's supposed to keep you from dropping below 1 hit point. You don't have to outpace damage, and in fact, if healing did, then there'd be very little sense of urgency and danger in a battle. Healing in the middle of a combat is meant to extend the amount of time folks stay alive so they can get more damage in, not to negate the entire threat of combat entirely.
I suspect that a big part of the issue is that the concept of healing someone else so THEY can get the glory of the final attack that wins the combat is why a lot of people have various problems with clerics (or bards for that matter), but that's a different rant.
James I agree with you 100% on this topic. People just don't see the value of keeping people up in combat. Though I always viewed healing as retroactively negating a creatures actions.
Why can't I sleep? I got work tomorrow and sunday.
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Creative Director
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James I agree with you 100% on this topic. People just don't see the value of keeping people up in combat. Though I always viewed healing as retroactively negating a creatures actions.
Another way to view healing is that any damage a character does when they're still able to function because you healed them and if you hadn't they would have been unconscious or dead is technically damage YOU helped contribute to.
Same with the bard. Keep track of all the extra damage you help folks do with bardic performance (both damage from attacks, and hits that otherwise would have missed) and you do plenty of help!
Given the way Seltyiel and Lirianne were portrayed in their respective Meet-The-Iconics entries, are the personalities of the two iconic half-elves polar opposites of each other?